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Read, borrow, and discover more than 3M books for free." /> <title>About Us | Open Library</title> </head> <body class="" > <script> // Provide a signal that JS will load document.body.className += ' client-js'; </script> <span id="top"></span> <div id="offline-info">It looks like you&#39;re offline.</div> <div id="donato"></div> <script src="/cdn/archive.org/donate.js" data-platform="ol"></script> <div id="topNotice"> <div class="page-banner page-banner-black page-banner-center"> <div class="iaBar"> <a class="iaLogo" href="https://archive.org"><img alt="Internet Archive logo" src="/static/images/ia-logo.svg" width="160"></a> <a class="ghost-btn" href="https://archive.org/donate/?platform=ol&origin=olwww-TopNavDonateButton" data-ol-link-track="IABar|DonateButton">Donate <span class="heart" aria-hidden="true">♥</span></a> <div class="language-component header-dropdown"> <details> <summary> <span>English (en)</span> <img class="translate-icon" src="/static/images/language-icon.svg" 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id="test-body-mobile"> <div class="flash-messages"> </div> <div id="contentHead"> <div id="editTools" class="edit"> <div id="editInfo"> <div class="brown smaller sansserif">Last edited by <a rel="nofollow" href="/people/mekBot" >Mek</a></div> <div class="smallest gray sansserif">April 15, 2024 | <a href="/about?m=history" rel="nofollow" title="View this template&#39;s edit history">History</a></div> </div> <div class="editButton"> <!-- FIXME: accesskey / keyboard shortcut needs i18n --> <a class="cta-btn cta-btn--vanilla" href="/about.en?m=edit" title="Edit this page" data-ol-link-track="CTAClick|Edit" accesskey="e" rel="nofollow" >Edit</a> </div> </div> <h1>About Us</h1> </div> <div id="contentBody"> <div class="contentHalf"> <p>One web page for every book ever published. It's a lofty but achievable goal. </p> <p>To build Open Library, we need hundreds of millions of book records, a wiki interface, and lots of people who are willing to contribute their time and effort to building the site. </p> <p>To date, we have gathered over 20 million records from a variety of large catalogs as well as single contributions, with more on the way. </p> <p>Open Library is an open project: the software is open, the data are open, the documentation is open, and we welcome your contribution. Whether you fix a typo, add a book, or write a widget--it's all welcome. We have a small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, but we can't do it alone! </p> <p><em>Open Library is a project of the non-profit <a href="http://www.archive.org" rel="nofollow">Internet Archive</a>, and has been funded in part by a grant from the <a href="http://www.library.ca.gov" rel="nofollow">California State Library</a> and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.</em> </p> <h2>Vision</h2> <p>The ultimate goal of the Open Library is to make all the published works of humankind available to everyone in the world. While large in scope and ambition, this goal is within our grasp. Achieving it will require the participation of librarians, authors, government officials and technologists. </p> <p>Imagine what a comprehensive, open library could be! A talented math whiz who lives in a rural community can explore the works of high math. An elderly person can have a large print edition of any book ever published. An innovative young scholar can publish a book directly to this great library on <a href="https://openlibrary.org/subjects" rel="nofollow">subjects</a> that might not otherwise make it through the long and difficult publication process. </p> <p>How can you help? Improve the records we have for the books you love – every record is fully editable by clicking the “edit” button on the page. If we don't have a record for a book, you can <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/add" rel="nofollow">create one</a>. If you're a library with digitized resources, tell us where they are and we'll point people to them. </p> <p>Our hope is that libraries and individual book readers will join this project and together we can build towards universal access to all knowledge. </p> </div> <div class="contentSpacer"></div> <div class="contentHalf"> <h3>For more information</h3> <div class="small sansserif"> <ul> <li><a href="https://blog.openlibrary.org" rel="nofollow">Visit the Blog</a></li> <li><a href="/help/faq">Read our FAQ</a></li> <li><a href="/contact">Contact Us</a></li> <li><a href="https://archive.org/donate/">Make a Donation</a></li> <li><a href="/about/people">The Team</a></li> <li><a href="/developers">Developer Center</a></li> <li><a href="/developers/licensing">Licensing</a></li> <li><a href="/about/tech">About the technology</a></li> <li><a href="/about/lib">About the librarianship</a></li> <li>We're having a <a href="/bookdrive">Book Drive</a>!</li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="contentSpacer"></div> <div class="clearfix"></div> <div id="pageHistory"> <div class="head"> <h2 class="collapse inline"> History </h2> <ul class="pageHistory__list inline"> <li class="title inline">Created April 9, 2008</li> <li class="link inline"><a rel="nofollow" href="/about?m=history">65 revisions</a></li> </ul> </div> <table class="history"> <tbody> <tr> <td class="timestamp"><a rel="nofollow" href="/about.en?v=65" title="View revision 65">April 15, 2024</a></td> <td class="timestamp"> Edited by <a rel="nofollow" href="/people/mekBot" class="truncate" >Mek</a> </td> <td class="detail"> <em>Edited without comment.</em> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="timestamp"><a rel="nofollow" href="/about.en?v=64" title="View revision 64">April 15, 2024</a></td> <td class="timestamp"> Edited by <a rel="nofollow" href="/people/mekBot" class="truncate" >Mek</a> </td> <td class="detail"> <em>Edited without comment.</em> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="timestamp"><a rel="nofollow" href="/about.en?v=63" title="View revision 63">April 15, 2024</a></td> <td class="timestamp"> Edited by <a rel="nofollow" href="/people/mekBot" class="truncate" >Mek</a> </td> <td class="detail"> rm mailing list </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="timestamp"><a rel="nofollow" href="/about.en?v=62" title="View revision 62">January 26, 2024</a></td> <td class="timestamp"> Edited by <a rel="nofollow" href="/people/mekBot" class="truncate" >Mek</a> </td> <td class="detail"> <em>Edited without comment.</em> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="timestamp"><a rel="nofollow" href="/about.en?v=1" title="View revision 1">April 9, 2008</a></td> <td class="timestamp"> Created by <a rel="nofollow" href="/people/anand" class="truncate" >Anand Chitipothu</a> </td> <td class="detail"> <em>Edited without comment.</em> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> <!--For analytics--> <div class="clearfix"></div> <footer> <div id="footer-content" > <div id="footer-links"> <div> <h2>Open Library</h2> <ul> <li><a 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